Tuesday, September 23, 2008

GREETINGS

When do you make the transition from handshake to hug to kiss on one cheek to kiss on both cheeks?

I realized that I am in the public eye a lot, and have made lots of acquaintances along the way. I start out by a good firm hand shake. A hand shake should always be good. Why do some people give such lousy handshakes, weird, flimsy, creepy,grab the hand wrong, or one that was done to me; didn’tcup the hand just shook a flat hand in mine. WEIRD!

We talk about bad handshakes all the time too, so how come those that give the bad handshake don’t question ‘their’ handshake. “Hummm do I have a bad handshake? Are they talking about me?” YES! WE ARE!… and we would like you to stop doing weird handshakes. And boys, none of this wimpy stuff, get it in gear and show some strength!

From the handshake greeting we move into the hug. Hugs are good and apparently we need many hugs/touches a day. I think after you’ve know a person for awhile it’s good to give a hug in a greeting or a departing. I won’t criticize hugs, because it’s people inyour ‘personal space’ so maybe your weird hug is because you don’t want people that close. Go back to the handshake.

I’ve recently moved on to the ‘fake’ kiss on one side.How do you know when to do the fake kiss? How do you know they won’t try to turn in and really kiss you? Or maybe you might WANT the real kiss. But how do we know when the fake kiss comes into play? Do we send out memos?

Dear new Acquaintance; I feel that our relationship has moved beyond the hug level, we are now going to do the fake kiss on one side, please check off whether you are the right side or the left.

And then when do we move to the fake kiss on both cheeks? Again what decides this? It is very perplexing to me and my little world. Or is this all just a European thing?